St Bartholomew House

St Bartholomew House is a bank office building and former Lyons tea-room, now a restaurant, built in 1906 by George Vickery for Biggarstaff, bankers. The construction occurred in three phases, with the rear left block rebuilt in 1925, and later alterations in the late 20th century. The building is constructed of cream brick, with the main facade clad in Portland stone and a granite lower course; the returns have cream tiles to the ground floor. It has a slate mansard roof and comprises five storeys and an attic, with a five-window range and a canted bay to the left.

The central entrance features finely-carved Art Nouveau trees with stylised gnarled roots flanked by a cavetto-moulded semi-circular arched fanlight with a lion’s mask keystone above a square-headed doorway. Above the large glazing-bar window and doorway is an egg and dart cornice, followed by an Ipswich window and entrance with engaged rusticated columns to the left. The upper floors feature square-headed casement windows and are articulated by full-height polygonal pilaster strips. Those flanking the central bay include similar Art Nouveau carvings where they meet the cornice at fourth-floor level, beneath a three-bay open segmental pediment with segmental-arched windows and richly-carved swags and an armorial cartouche to the tympanum. A domed roof surmounts a carved bay to the left. A similar single bay to the left-side return also has similar Art Nouveau carvings. The remaining five-bay return is relatively plain with square-headed windows, and segmental-arched windows to the ground floor. The right return, of three bays, retains original tea-room windows to the front two bays with attached columns, cornices, and decorative spandrels, along with a metal grille over; console-bracketed fascia is also present.

The interior of the former banking office retains few original features beyond painted-over Art Nouveau tiles to the stair lobby on each floor, two small sections of original iron stair balustrade, and on the first floor, some doorways with leaded overlights, tiling, and cornices. The former tea-rooms retain original wall marbling and mirrors to the basement and ground floors, a stair (altered), and, in the basement, metal eaves grilles and a panelled ceiling. The building exhibits very strong group value and is notable for its Art Nouveau carvings and the surviving Lyons tea-room features.